EDITOR,

On Friday last week, I was in a bank, and what I witnessed was shocking. A young man was there to deposit some money and a female teller was speaking to him in the local language. The guy tried to explain to her that he had no clue about what she was saying but she didn’t seem bothered.

Frustrated, he snapped at her and asked why Rwandans always assume everyone understands the language. Now the shock came in when all of a sudden she snapped back and told him, in what seemed like perfect English to me, that she was from Rwanda so that is the language she wanted to speak! She went on to say that if he wanted, she could use a language he is most comfortable with. Wasn’t that much simpler than wasting a lot of his and other people’s time?

She attended to him but with a look on her face that showed she was clearly not amused. Hardly had the man turned his back, when he was through, that she and her colleagues begun talking about him and wondering what was wrong with him. But I was wondering the same about her.

Not only was she rude but also very arrogant. No matter what a customer says, heshe is still of great importance. Because without the customer you don’t have a job. I just think that in places such as banks, an employee should be able to speak more than one language.

The first thing a customer says to you when they speak should tell you what language they are comfortable with. In this day and age, English should be first on your list if you are working in such places.

As for this girl, she actually knew the language but chose to ignore the man’s discomfort. Then she went further and didn’t even wait for him to leave to start gossiping.

Because even though he didn’t understand what she was saying, everybody could tell that she was talking about him. What does that say to the other customers? Please remember that the customer will always be king. Thanks.

Rhema Kamaliza
Kiyovu